Word Origin & History

bureau 1690s, from Fr. bureau "office, desk," originally "cloth covering for a desk," from burel "coarse woolen cloth" (as a cover for writing desks), O.Fr. dim. of bure "dark brown cloth," which is perhaps either from L. burrus "red," or from L.L. burra "wool, shaggy garment." Offices being full of such desks, the meaning expanded 1720 to "division of a government."

Example Sentences for bureau

I am writing this on the bureau, so that when I lift my eyes I may see It.

And I know that since the death of Maman Theresa they had hid it in one of the bureau drawers.

Beaufort rose with a desperate effort; he moved to the bureau.

They undressed again, and Dan put his gun away in his bureau.

Well, they tells me—Lawd knows what they calls it bureau for!

I think that she still contemplated appearing in it at the Bureau.

At first she invariably kept him in a lower drawer of my bureau.

Then she rose, and, going to her bureau, picked up a pair of night glasses.

Then she rose from her seat, and returned her night glasses to the bureau.

But Kate, as she sat before her bureau, had no thought of these things just now.